Friday’s Vedomosti daily cited a Russian defence industry source as saying it was unclear if the weapons would be delivered to Syria this year while the Kommersant daily quoted its source as saying that delivery was only planned in the second quarter of 2014 . . .

But both sources quoted by Kommersant and Vedomosti said that no delivery of the missiles had taken place yet.

A raid on the residence of one of the Lebanese had uncovered 11 60 mm anti-tank weapons, four anti-tank landmines, two rounds of ammunition for a 122 mm artillery gun, 21 rocket-propelled grenades, seventeen AK-47s with more than 11,000 bullets and some dynamite, he said.

“The arms and ammunition were targeted at facilities of Israel and Western interest in Nigeria,” Iweha said, but did not elaborate.

• Correspondents from The Guardian and Times of London visited the Majdal Shams to get the pulse of the Israeli Druze community nervously watching the uprising next door.

•AP: Egypt’s national legislature, as well as a panel tasked with drafting a constitution, were illegally elected. It’s the latest example of Calvinball in Cairo.

Rest O’ the Roundup

• Tensions between striking Minister of Foreign Affairs workers and the Prime Minister’s office continue. According to Haaretz, the Prime Minister’s office asked a military attache to arrange an upcoming Israeli-Polish summit in Warsaw. Sheesh.

A few days ago, the Foreign Ministry’s workers committee issued a directive not to cooperate in any way with Netanyahu and the cabinet ministers’ visit to Poland. The Israeli Embassy in Warsaw has been instructed not to help reserve hotel rooms for the ministers and their entourages, hold preparatory talks, coordinate with the Polish government or accommodate officials from the Prime Minister’s Bureau who arrive to make preparations for the visit.

The Prime Minister’s Bureau is trying to break the strike by organizing the summit in Poland without the assistance of the Israeli Embassy or the Foreign Ministry.

•Reuters: Iran’s Arak reactor is due to become operational next year. Once the facility goes live, attacking it becomes much more problematic:

The Islamic Republic says it will make isotopes for medical and agricultural use. But analysts say this type of facility can also produce plutonium for weapons if the spent fuel is reprocessed – something Iran says it has no intention of doing.

Time may be pressing for adversaries who want to act.

“Whoever considers attacking an active reactor is willing to invite another Chernobyl,” former Israeli military intelligence chief Amos Yadlin said . . .

• The JTA visited Israel’s Sorek desalinisation plant due to go into operation next month. The plant “will provide up to 26,000 cubic meters – or nearly 7 million gallons – of potable water to Israelis every hour. When it’s at full capacity, it will be the largest desalination plant of its kind in the world.”

Aloof (mil) Amos Yadlin got it wrong. True, once the Arak reactor goes critical there will be radio-active contamination when attacked and destroyed. But that is far , far smaller than in the Chernowil calamity. Then, tons of boiling uranium were released into the air. By comparison, the Arak reactor is in the order of 100 MW or less, whereas the Ukranian reaktor was in the order of 1000 mega watts.
Israeli warplanes destroyed the Iraqi Osirak-reactor in 1981, just before it was charged with fissible elements and thus before it became critical.
Irrespecrive of Yadlin’s exaggeration, Israel should keep a watchfull eye on Iran’s PLUTONIUM programme, not just at the spinning centrifuges.

What makes you think that the Russian threat to sell MiGs to Syria is a negative for Israel? Over the last 25 years, MiGs have proven to be some of the least reliable combat aircraft in the world. They tend to fall out of the sky. Couple that with Syrian pilot lack of flight hours, and I would say that you have a favorable turn for Israel (and Russia, which is trying to keep MiG on life support).